2011/01/01 by Ama Biney · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #African studies and sociopolitical issues
paper · doi:10.1057/9780230118645_5
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The tumultuous years of 1954 through 1957 saw a violent political confrontation between the National Liberation Movement (NLM), which was formed on September 19, 1954, and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) government. The causes that gave rise to this movement were rooted in a complex emergence of material and regional interests in the country. The loss of Asante’s historic hegemony over a country it once ruled, in addition to the fact that a large proportion of the country’s major exports (gold, timber, and cocoa) originated in the Ashanti region fueled Asante grievances. 1 Another factor contributing to the conflict in Ashanti was the twenty seats allocated to the region by the Van Lare Commission. Inflaming the discontent among the CPP in Ashanti was Nkrumah’s May 1954 public expulsion of the 81 rebel CPP candidates at a mass rally in Kumasi at the Subin River Valley. The site of the expulsion was significant, for the Central Committee of the CPP were fully aware that the rebellion had come from the CPP Asante candidates and they, therefore, openly sought to teach them a lesson as well as make an example of them. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.